Litvinenko murder may be linked to mystery Russian poisonings

Jonathan Calvert and Pazit Ravina
Sunday Times
Jan. 01, 2007

PROSECUTORS in Moscow are investigating the possibility that the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London last month is linked to two unsolved poisonings involving prominent Russian businessmen.

Both men were embroiled in the multi-billion-pound battle over Yukos, the Russian oil company, before its assets were taken back into state control by the Kremlin.

One is Roman Tsepov — a former bodyguard to President Vladimir Putin — who is reported to have intervened in the negotiations over Yukos.

He was murdered two years ago after suffering severe radiation sickness brought on by a mystery substance he had ingested with food or drink. His symptoms were remarkably similar to those suffered by Litvinenko who died in a London hospital on November 23 from exposure to polonium-210, a radioactive substance.

The second case is that of Alexei Golubovich, a former senior Yukos director, who survived alleged attempts to poison him and members of his family with mercury.

In August Golubovich gave an interview accusing Leonid Nevzlin, the former co-owner of Yukos, of being behind the attempts.

The Russian prosecutor- general’s office announced last week that Nevzlin, who is now based in Israel, is suspected of involvement in the death of Litvinenko.

A spokesman for Nevzlin has dismissed the claims as a dirty tricks campaign to divert the blame for Litvinenko’s death away from the Kremlin. Russia has been seeking Nevzlin’s extradition since 2004 when a Moscow court issued an arrest warrant against him for allegedly organising contract killings and assassination attempts against several targets, including Yukos competitors.

Nevzlin met Litvinenko in Tel Aviv to discuss the Yukos affair three months before his death. Earlier this month he said: “Alexander called me about three months ago and said he was in Israel. Our meeting was not planned in advance but I agreed to see him.

“He was in possession of some FSB (successor to the KGB) documents regarding criminal acts committed in direct collaboration of (sic) the Russian government, involving illegal attempts to re-possess . . . Yukos.”

Nevzlin believes Litvinenko was silenced because he knew too much about the Kremlin figures who brought about the downfall of Yukos, which was Russia’s biggest private oil company.

It became bankrupt this summer — crushed by huge tax bills from the Kremlin and the jailing of its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, for fraud. Its assets have now passed to a largely state-owned company.

Nevzlin said of Litvinenko: “He was a kind young man. Strange but kind. While he had many enemies, some of them in the FSB, he did not deserve to die such a cruel death.”

His lawyers have passed an 18-page statement they took from Litvinenko to the Scotland Yard team investigating his death.

The similarities between the deaths of Litvinenko and Tsepov were highlighted by The Sunday Times earlier this month. Tsepov ran a security business that provided bodyguard services to Putin when the Russian leader was deputy mayor of St Petersburg in the early 1990s.

Tsepov is reported to have used his Kremlin connections subsequently to intervene in negotiations between Yukos shareholders and the Russian government.

In September 2004 he was admitted to hospital in St Petersburg with severe food poisoning. As in the case of Litvinenko, he began to show classic symptoms of radiation sickness: he grew pale, his hair fell out and his white blood cell count fell. It is still not clear exactly which substance was used to kill him.

Golubovich, 41, had fallen out with Nevzlin over business related to Yukos. Russian prosecutors say that mercury vapours “were found in cars, apartments, country houses, and offices both in Moscow and in London”.

Golubovich was arrested in Italy this year but fought off an attempt to extradite him to Russia on fraud charges. He, in turn, claims to hold information on financial frauds committed by Yukos.

Yesterday a spokesman for Nevzlin accused the Russian prosecutors of acting as Putin’s “mouthpiece”. He said: “Nevzlin is a bitter opponent of Putin — hence the Kremlin act in every possible way to harm him . . . Litvinenko himself, on his dying bed, pointed a finger at Putin.”